Wednesday, October 22, 2014

1980’s Horror Movie Logos & Typography

Typography can be used to evoke emotions from feelings of
elation and excitement to dread and horror. The typefaces that are used for
logos and posters possess stylistic attributes or imagery that help depict a
grim and unsettling story. An example would be how they use distressed type
forms to portray malicious intent or a gory event. What makes these typefaces
so fascinating is the atypical, yet still cinematic, approach to their design and
the use of typography to communicate with viewers rather than conforming to
other cinematic clichés such as displaying a large eye.

These examples from the 1980’s stood out within their time. They make the best use of typography to communicate with their audiences. Many of today's horror films, they rely more on imagery than creating an identity within their typographic logos to entice the viewers.

He Knows You're Alone integrates the imagery of a fearful woman with the typeface.

The Evil Dead uses angular and dynamic type that breaks its traditional forms.

The Fog illustrates the type slowly and eerily approaching through its transitioning size.

The Shining was
and still is one of the most well known horror classic movies out there. Stanley
Kubrick, the director of The Shining,
wanted to complete and perfect his film by having a poster design created by
Saul Bass, who worked on other film titles such as The Man with the Golden Arm, Vertigo, and Psycho. Saul Bass had an
uncanny skill for his use of typography to impact his audience and instill psychological
horror in graphic visuals.

Many of Saul Bass’s ideas were rejected by the
perfectionist, Stanley.

“Hand and bike are too irrelevant. Title looks bad small.
Looks like ink didn’t take on the part that goes light.”

“Hard to read even at this size."

"Maze and figures places too much emphasis on maze,
I don't think we should use the maze in ads."